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OpenWrt Wiki

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About This Project

OpenWrt is a highly extensible GNU/Linux distribution for embedded devices (typically wireless routers). Unlike many other distributions for these routers, OpenWrt is built from the ground up to be a full-featured, easily modifiable operating system for your router. In practice, this means that you can have all the features you need with none of the bloat, powered by a Linux kernel that's more recent than most other distributions.

The general method for picking the right image is visiting the Table of Hardware, then matching the "Platform & Frequency" of your device with the image you're downloading. Sometimes, the "Status" column will have additional information for your device, such as building its image or device-specific installation instructions.

If there isn't a pre-built image for your device, follow the Building OpenWrt instructions to build a custom image.

Any bugs in the firmware should be reported via the ticket system. Before reporting a new bug please first search for similar bugs.

Bleeding Edge

The development branch can contain experimental code that is under active development and should not be used for production environments. Bleeding edge OpenWrt supports additional hardware; however, it's considered unstable, and sometimes won't compile.

Alternatively, pre-built snapshots are available. The so-called buildbots are automated machines that run build scripts around the clock to keep recent snapshots available for install.

Prebuilt trunk images do not come with any web interface or GUI. You will need to be comfortable using a command line and remote shell to install one yourself: LuCI Essentials

The bots build for most specific build targets (i.e. devices). For more information about the automated build process, see the buildbot page http://buildbot.openwrt.org:8010/. The builds are available in the snapshot directory of the OpenWrt download page:

While the build process is automated and is mostly functioning, it's highly advisable that you check the dates on the files before downloading them to prevent installing an outdated version.

If opkg is complaining that the packages list is too old, it is possible that the last few buildbot runs have failed for your platform and the packages are already a few days old.

Buildbot also reports which packages fail to build, so that developers get feedback on possible errors. So when wondering why a package is not currently available in trunk, you could also check the "broken packages" list for your platform.
http://buildbot.openwrt.org:8010/broken_packages/